VGC | John – Page 3 – Video Game Canon

2024 GOTY Scoreboard: Astro Bot, Balatro, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, More

People who focus on the business side of games predicted that 2024 would see fewer AAA releases than 2023 and more layoffs throughout the industry. Sadly, they were right on both counts. It’s rough out there for people who make games.

But the dour cloud that’s currently hanging over the industry is all the more reason to celebrate the developers that did great work last year.

The year’s biggest success story might be the most surprising, as Team Asobi’s Astro Bot collected the most “Game of the Year” hardware from journalists and players, as well as three of the four major awards (The Game Awards, the DICE Awards, and the BAFTA Games Awards). But there was plenty to celebrate from 2024, with a dozen other games earning at least one “Game of the Year” accolade and dozens more appearing further down the lists.

That cohort includes LocalThunk’s Balatro (which won “Game of the Year” at the GDC Awards), Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Atlus’s Metaphor: ReFantazio, and MachineGames’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

The latest adventure starring everyone’s favorite archeologist is an interesting case, as it released so late in the year that many outlets (including The Game Awards) were unable to properly evaluate it. Will its recent launch on the PS5 give a boost to its 2025 GOTY Scoreboard crusade? I wouldn’t rule it out, but it’s possible that Nintendo’s shiny new Switch 2 will steal this year’s spotlight.

But that’s a conversation that won’t begin until December. For now, you should definitely check out more of 2024’s most-acclaimed games after the break.

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The Strong Museum of Play Acquires Prototypes and Development Documents from Volition’s 30-Year History

Volition opened their doors in 1993 and they spent the next 30 years developing a slew of critically-acclaimed action games such as Descent, Red Faction, and Saints Row. But that all came to an end in 2023 when the studio was shuttered by parent company Deep Silver. In the year-and-a-half since that closure, curators at the Strong Museum of Play have been in contact with many former developers from he company to collect and catalog Volition’s expansive history.

Earlier this week, the museum’s Director of Digital Preservation, Andrew Borman, announced the acquisition of the Volition Collection on LinkedIn:

While we have only just begun to process the collection, I am beginning to understand some of what it might contain. […] We can explore games that were unreleased and never made it to market, such as various Saints Row spinoffs and their prototypes, many of which haven’t been seen before. We are honored to preserve the history and legacy of Volition, and the work of many Volitionites that made such incredible games.

The Strong was given a massive trove of discs containing game builds and other supporting documents, including an early prototype of Saints Row (which was then known as Bling Bling) and development materials connected to Descent 4 (an unreleased prequel that was reworked into Red Faction).

Staff members at The Strong are currently working with the collection and “organizing, cataloguing, and migrating data from optical discs and other storage formats” to make it available to researchers and museum guests at a future date.

Minecraft’s Volume Alpha Soundtrack Has Been Added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry

Two years ago, Koji Kondo’s “Super Mario Bros. Theme” became the first piece of music from a video game to be added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. But it definitely won’t be the last.

The National Recording Registry’s Class of 2025 was announced earlier this week, and Minecraft‘s Volume Alpha soundtrack by Daniel “C148” Rosenfeld was among the inductees. Here’s what Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden had to say about the selection:

Since its official release in 2011, Minecraft has grown into a cultural phenomenon, building its legacy as one of history’s most successful video games one voxel at a time. Key to the game’s early success is the ambient-style soundtrack, created by German producer Daniel Rosenfeld under his alias, C418. The gentle electronic score lends itself perfectly to the game’s open-ended design and sandbox environment, which invites players to interact, explore and build, free from any specific narrative constraints.

Inspired by pioneers of intelligent dance music such as Aphex Twin and the ambient music of Brian Eno, Rosenfeld’s original soundtrack to the game, compiled on the 2011 release “Minecraft: Volume Alpha,” provides a soothing and inviting backdrop to the video game’s open-world environment, creating instant nostalgia in the process. The influence of C418’s music can be traced through the proliferation of ambient scores appearing in video games since Minecraft’s initial release, as well as the cultural phenomenon of “lo-fi hip-hop,” which grew in popularity during the late 2010s and shares many of the same calming and nostalgic musical aesthetics as those found in Minecraft’s original score.

Minecraft’s soundtrack will be joined in the Class of 2025 by a wide variety of recordings, including Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Tracy Chapman’s self-titled album (which includes “Fast Car”), Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”, Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, the Original Broadway Cast Album of Hamilton, and the “Reboot Chime” from Windows 95 (which was composed by Brian Eno).

The 2024-2025 BAFTA Games Awards Goes With the Flow as Astro Bot is Named “Best Game”

The voting body behind the BAFTA Games Awards has gained something of a reputation as a group that is always interested in the road not taken. Just look at these examples…

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a certifiable phenomenon at this point, but the BAFTA Game Awards chose to honor Portal 2 as the “Best Game” from 2011. And while we all got swept up in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017, the “Best Game” statuette at the BAFTAs went to What Remains of Edith Finch. Even two years ago, while everyone else was gushing over Elden Ring, it was Vampire Survivors that won “Best Game” at the BAFTA Games Awards.

But what happened at the 2024-2025 BAFTA Games Awards? This year, the folks who make up the British Academy chose to join the crowd and give the “Best Game” statuette to Team Asobi’s Astro Bot. Sony’s robotic mascot took home four additional awards last night, including “Animation”, “Audio Achievement”, “Family”, and “Game Design”.

Did any other games win some awards last night? You bet!

The Chinese Room’s Still Wakes the Deep led the rest of the pack with wins in three categories (“New Intellectual Property”, “Performer in a Leading Role” for Alec Newman, and “Performer in a Supporting Role” for Karen Dunbar). Arrowhead’s Helldivers II also picked up a pair of awards (“Multiplayer” and “Music”) during the show.

And then there was Balatro.

The game’s pseudonymous developer, LocalThunk, was a no-show at the BAFTA Games Awards, but he sent actor Ben Starr (dressed as Balatro‘s Jimbo the Joker) to the show in his stead. So it was Starr who accepted the “Best Debut” statuette for Balatro on LocalThunk’s behalf and delivered an acceptance speech for the ages:

“I can say having met him personally, LocalThunk is really rich now. He has shoes made of gold and he thanks you for making him that way. He says here at the bottom, he wishes he could thank more people, but if he’s being honest, it was just him who made it. Everyone else is a freeloader, especially you, PlayStack.”

It was all fun and games until the end, when Starr closed by saying, “Play more independent games like Animal Well. They are the lifeblood of this industry and they deserve your respect.”

The 2024-2025 BAFTA Games Awards marks the end of awards season, and you can find a replay of the ceremony, as well as the rest of the winners and all the nominees, after the break. The extended Longlist, which includes more than 60 titles, is also available on BAFTA’s website.

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Balatro Draws “Game of the Year” Honors at the 2024-2025 GDC Awards

It was a tale of two games last night in San Francisco at the 2024-2025 Game Developers Choice Awards. As they’ve done throughout awards season, Team Asobi’s Astro Bot was competing head-to-head with Localthunk’s Balatro in most categories, including “Game of the Year”.

Astro Bot was victorious at The Game Awards and the DICE Awards, but the little automaton couldn’t go three-for-three as Balatro won “Game of the Year” at this year’s GDC Awards. The poker roguelike also went all in to collect the “Innovation Award”, “Best Design”, and “Best Debut”.

But don’t worry, Team Asobi didn’t go home empty handed last night. Astro Bot was the only other game to win multiple awards as it took home two statuettes for “Best Technology” and “Best Audio”.

The rest of the ceremony spread a handful of awards among some of 2024’s most acclaimed titles including Black Myth: Wukong (“Best Visual Art”), Metaphor: ReFantazio (“Best Narrative”), Life Is Strange: Double Exposure (“Social Impact Award”), and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (“Audience Award”).

Balatro has reshuffled awards season with the BAFTAs still ahead of us, and it’ll be interesting to see if it and Astro Bot can continue their winning ways in London.

A complete list of all the nominees and winners from the 2024-2025 GDC Awards, as well as a short video montage of the winners, can be found after the break.

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Zelda: Ocarina of Time Takes the Top Spot in Indy100’s “The Best 100 Video Games of All Time”

We’re just three months into 2025 and we have yet another new Best Games list to dissect and debate.

This time it comes from Indy100, a Digg-like viral news portal from British newspaper The Independent. “The Best 100 Video Games of All Time” sounds a little backwards to my American ears, but it’s business as usual at the top of the list as our old friend The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time took the #1 spot.

The list actually feels pretty traditional as you move through the rest of the Top 25. There’s Super Mario World at #3 and Half-Life 2 at #4 and The Last of Us at #9. Mainstays like Mass Effect 2 (#12), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (#15), and Elden Ring (#17) can also be found in this stretch of the list.

But after that, more than 10% of the list is devoted to games that have never appeared on a Best Games list before. 2025’s Monster Hunter Wilds (#73) is the newest game on the list, but Indy100 also made room for 2024’s Astro Bot (#68), and 2023’s Alan Wake II (#77) and Spider-Man 2 (#72).

This batch of never-before-seen games also includes old favorites like 2000’s Spyro: Year of the Dragon (#81) and the incredibly-underrated Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil (#69) from 2001. Other new additions include God of War: Ragnarok (#16), Horizon: Forbidden West (#44), Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (#95), Devil May Cry 5 (#87), and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (#88).

While a lot of new additions and old favorites dot the Indy100 list, the most unique part of “The Best 100 Video Games of All Time” might be the one game that didn’t make the cut… there’s no version of Tetris anywhere on the list. It’s a bit surprising, but it does happen.

The games from Indy100’s “The Best 100 Video Games of All Time” will be added to the Video Game Canon as part of the 2026 update.

World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Finalists for Class of 2025 Include Angry Birds, GoldenEye 007, Quake, and More

I can’t say that I blame them, but it sure looks the World Video Game Hall of Fame would like it to be 2023 again. The finalists for the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 were announced earlier this week, and six games that failed to make the cut from 2023 are getting another try this year. That crop of titles includes Ensemble’s Age of Empires, Rovio’s Angry Birds, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Rare’s GoldenEye 007, Visual Concepts’s NBA 2K, and id Software’s Quake.

They’ll be competing against two other returning finalists, Konami’s Frogger (which was last up as a finalist in 2020) and the Mattel Football handheld .

Unorthodox handhelds are something of the theme this year, as Bandai’s Tamagotchi digital pet is a finalist (for the first time) as well. It’s joined by a trio of other first-timers including Midway’s Defender, Incredible Technologies’s Golden Tee Golf, and Natsume’s Harvest Moon.

“This year’s finalists span the decades and range from arcade classics to one of the most popular mobile games of all time,” said Jon-Paul Dyson, the Director of The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games. “All of these games have enormously influenced pop culture or the game industry itself. Frogger was popular in the arcades of the 1980s, but an iconic Seinfeld scene in 1998 made it unforgettable. The brilliant coding of the first-person shooter Quake enabled unforgettable multiplayer matches that have mesmerized players and influenced many games that followed. Then there’s Tamagotchi, which bridges the gap between video games and digital toys, changing the way we think about games.”

The Hall of Fame’s International Selection Advisory Committee, a body made up of journalists and scholars from around the world, is currently debating which of these games to induct as part of the Class of 2025, and you can help. A Player’s Choice Ballot will be available until March 13th and the three games that receive the most votes will be submitted alongside the other ballots from the committee members.

The World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 will be announced during a ceremony at The Strong on Thursday, May 8, at 10:30 AM. If you’d like to study up on this classic games, the curators at the Strong Museum have put together a cheat sheet describing each of games. You can find it after the break.

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Aidan Moher Will Write “Suikoden 1 & 2” for Boss Fight Books in 2026

The Suikoden I & II HD Remaster was first announced in 2022, and after three long years of waiting, it is finally available on store shelves. This is the first modern re-release for any of the games in the franchise, and fans are absolutely giddy at the chance to play it again.

Aidan Moher (the author of the RPG-centric Fight, Magic, Items) decided to piggyback on the launch date with an announcement (via Astrolabe) that he’ll be teaming up with Boss Fight Books to publish a history of the creation of Suikoden 1 & 2 in book form:

After doing a deep dive into the history of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the rise of Japanese RPGs in the west with Fight, Magic, Items, I was left with several stories that felt unfulfilled—games and series that had more to say than I was able to fit into that book. Chief among those was Suikoden, which has seen a recent and surprising revival after the success of its creators’s kickstarted spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicle. […] I couldn’t imagine telling one story without the other, and the end result is a rich, reported and personal look at the first two games, the people who made them, and the impact they’ve had on their genre and beyond.

From the early days when a green Yoshitaka Murayama accidentally agreed to make an RPG (a genre he didn’t play) about The Water Margin, to Miki Higashino’s revolutionary soundtrack and Junko Kawano’s timeless designs, to a lengthy interview with Suikoden II’s localization team, and the road to the 2025 remasters, Suikoden 1 & 2 runs the gamut.

Suikoden 1 & 2 will be published in 2026 as part of Boss Fight’s upcoming (and as yet unannounced) Season 8. More details about the rest of the books in that lineup will be announced at a later date.

Hades Debuts in the Top 10 in the 2025 Update to the Video Game Canon’s Top 1000

It took a little extra time, but the Version 8.0 update to the Video Game Canon is finally here.

With the addition of a handful of new lists since the last update, the Video Game Canon’s critical consensus is now aggregated using data from 80 Best Video Games of All Time lists published across the last four decades. That includes one list published just a few weeks ago (Rolling Stone’s “The 50 Greatest Video Games of All Time“) and one from 2024 Dexerto’s “These Are the 100 Best Games of All Time“).

Data from two older lists (The Sydney Morning Herald’s “Top 50 Video Games of All Time” from 2002 and Gamereactor’s “Best Ever: Games” from 2022) were also added to the dataset, as was the annual update to the “Shacknews Hall of Fame“.

If you’re new to the Video Game Canon, here’s a quick primer on how it all works.

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Ludocene Wants to Fix Game Discovery With a “Dating App” for Video Games

Discovering new video games is harder than ever before as thousands of new titles are added to digital storefronts every month.

I’m sure you’ve read some version of this sentence in dozens of articles over the last few years. But discovery isn’t just an industry buzzword and the “too many games” problem is very real. So how do you sift through more than a thousand games a month to find the best of the best?

Enter Ludoscene, a new website from the Family Gaming Database, that will try to help players find their next favorite game when it launches later this year.

Ludocene, which actually comes from the Latin for “New Games”, is now seeking funding through Kickstarter. The website (and accompanying app) is designed to function like a dating app crossing with a deckbuilder. Users will fill their deck with games they already love, narrow the choices with modifiers like platforms or ESRB rating, and even call on the help of Experts (such as Brian Crecente, Simon Parkin, and more than a dozen others) to meld their favorites with Ludocene’s human-built recommendation engine.

Ludocene is a new way to find your next game. It uses rich human-researched data to build your catalogue of games. It uncovers amazing, unusual and unexpected matches not just the usual suspects or big popular games.

It feels like you’re playing a game, where winning is discovering video games that perfectly match your tastes:

– Build your perfect deck of games you love.
– Pick experts whose taste you trust.
– Discover your best matches in the tailored suggestions.

Each game is represented by a card that you can interact with: click to view a game trailer and flip to view more details and the best prices on storefronts.

You can see Ludocene in action, and hear more about the project from Andy Robertson of Family Gaming Database, in this video:

If it’s funded, Ludocene will be available to Early Access backers in a few weeks. The rest of us will get a chance to find our perfect game sometime over the Summer.

UPDATE (8/6/25): Ludocene is now available for all your game discovery needs.